


A Princess, a Merchant and a Singer Walk through a Mirror…

by Skiewrites



Series: The War of Era did more than mess up the timeline.... [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors
Genre: Dimension Travel, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Linked Universe, M/M, Magic, Magical Items, Road Trip, Time Travel, Travel, mask knows everything somehow, road trip au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25610230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiewrites/pseuds/Skiewrites
Summary: A Princess, a merchant and a singer walk through a mirror. It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but the only joke there was to be had is the fact that they were utterly utterly lost.Or: Ravio, Marin and Midna decide to make their own way home after the War of Eras. It involves saying goodbyes to old friends, hello to new ones, and a lot of sitting around and waiting for something to happen.
Relationships: Link/Marin (Legend of Zelda), Link/Marin/Ravio (Legend of Zelda), Link/Midna (Legend of Zelda), Link/Ravio (Legend of Zelda), Shadow Link/Vio Link
Series: The War of Era did more than mess up the timeline.... [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856296
Comments: 11
Kudos: 117





	1. Part 1.1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, this is a spinoff of my other fic 'Mister Captain Hero Sir', which I know isn't finished but you don't need to read all of it to understand what's going on, just up to about chapter five. Or don't, if you're chaotic like that. 
> 
> Big shout out to Cerame on discord, who basically came up with the idea with the fic and I just wrote it out. ily!!!

Ravio isn’t sure whether he should get his hopes up when the newest member of the ‘misplaced peps from across time and space’ introduces herself as Marin, with a cute little smile and a small bow, her fiery red hair covering most of her face until she brushes it away, or if he should be worried for his life.

Because he knows a lot about Marin, more than he should really. He knows because of the late nights spent with Link staring at the stars and the sea and listening to how he once met the most wonderful girl in the world, and how she was rudely taken from him. He knew about how quickly they both feel in love with each other, the whirlwind of romance that it was. He knew that she had taken Link’s first kiss, first date, first everything really, and he knew how the Wind Fish decided to break his heart by reminding him that she was never real anyways.

He had talked of long nights under the stars while they sang and danced, and lazy days wasted with giggles as they enjoyed their time together. Their first date ended terribly when Marin is kicked out of the arcade, but Link never cared about the rules anyways.

He should really see her as a threat. She would be the one to take Mr Hero away from him, claim him as her own and shove it right into Ravio’s face.

But he doesn’t.

Because if she’s what Link needs to be happy, then he will take the step back and let it happen. He would be happy to watch the pair of them fall back in love and he would happily let his poor little heart shatter into a million pieces if it meant that Link will be forever happy.

Because he catches himself staring at her, at the way that she smiles brightly during a battle and the way that she keeps everyone entertained with her stories and the way that she sings everyone to dreamless sleeps.

Because it took him much too long for him to realise that he’s falling for the same girl that Mr Hero loved, the one he fought for, the one that he remembered and cried for and mourned.

The same Mr Hero that he was still in love with, married to (even if it was for tax purposes only).

Ravio had a strange feeling that this wasn’t going to end well for anyone, but that’s what happened when your life was mixed in with a hero’s. There was never a happy ending for a hero, and all was fair in love and war.

Ravio stared at the stars above him. The battle earlier had not been one of the hardest he had been through, but Impa had taken a heavy hit, and everyone was feeling particularly demoralized from it, no matter what the captain tried to do to bring it back up again.

“Can I join you?” The voice echoing around him is the most smoothing he’s ever heard, he’s sure she could sooth the deepest of worries and banish all anxiety with just one word, but he jumped anyways at Marin’s words. He nodded when he realised how dry his throat went, and blushed slightly when she sat close enough for him to be able to feel her body heat from where she sat.

It’s not fair for him to be feeling like this, not when he had Mr Hero to think about.

“Is it bad that I don’t want to go home, after all of this?” Marin’s words echoed through the night, but there’s no one else around to hear her deepest desires. “I know that I wished to travel outside my island, and I know how lucky I am to even get that much granted to me, but is it selfish of me to wish to be able to see Link again?”

“Absolutely not!” Ravio said as he grabbed her hand, squeezing it to comfort her. She let out a noise of surprise at the sudden contact, but she did not pull away from him, so he continued to tell her his thoughts and his plans.

“We’re going to find a way to get you back to my time period, and make sure that you stay there.” Ravio explained like it wasn’t a crazy thought, like it was completely possible for them to do on a whim tomorrow, like it was something that everyone else would be on board with. He knew that none of those things were true.

He had been stuck on this thought for a while now. They’ve all been traveling from one place to another with almost no rest, so maybe it was the delusions from the lack of sleep talking, but all he wanted was to make Mr Hero happy. Ravio wanted to do something that would stop him from needing to travel across Hyrule and further, he wanted something that would anchor Link in place so he would stop almost dying every day.

Marin could be the answer.

Even if it meant that his heart would shatter into irreparable pieces.

“You don’t have to. This isn’t your problem.”

“Please, Mr Hero would have my head if he found out that I saw you here and did nothing, and that sounds like my problem,” Ravio said, smiling when Marin rolled her eyes at him.

“No he wouldn’t, he’s not like that,” Marin muttered, and Ravio gave her his biggest smile.

‘You’re absolutely right, he would just blame himself until the end of his life because you were within reach if he didn’t give himself the holiday that I spend months convincing him to go on, and I don’t know about you, but I think that that is worse to think about.”

“Yeah, you’re right with that one.” She said with a small frown, and Ravio hated the way that it caused her forehead to scrunch up. “What do we do?”

“The plan is to find a way to get you to come back to my Hyrule without Mister Captain Hero Sir getting his scarf in a twist. C’mon, I’ll show you what I’ve got so far.” He kept a tight hold on her hands as he started to drag her back to his tent, letting go of it once they were finally inside and

“Where is it!” Ravio said in frustration. 

“What are you looking for?” Marin asked, but before Ravio could reply, a new voice interrupted them. 

“Is it this?” Ravio let out a scream at the new voice, turning around, making direct eye contact with Mask, who was looking into the mirror with curiosity.

‘Oh my goddess, where did you come from? Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Ravio screamed, holding a hand to his chest to contain his beating heart, before frowning at the small hero. “Haven’t we talked about you not touching my magically charged and dangerous items?” Ravio snapped as he snatched the mirror of from Mask, who only shrugged.

“Interesting item. It’s going to need a lot of work before it can do what I think you’re planning to do.” Mask said with a smile as he decided to sit down in the tent, Marin cautiously following suit while Ravio started to pace around, studying the mirror intencesly.

“How do you know so much kid?” Ravio grumbled as he dropped the mirror onto his bed and decided to rummage through his bag instead, pulling out hammer after sand rod after hammer after hookshot after hammer.

“I’ll tell you in the future, I promise.” Mask said, though Ravio didn’t put too much stock into learning Mask’s secret.

“You know Ravio’s plan?” Marin asked. Mask nodded

“Of course he does. He’s Mask after all,” Ravio muttered as he finally pulled out his last hammer out of his bag and started to stare at all of his magical items. None of them were going to be useful in this endever, he knew that from the start, but maybe if he stared at them for long enough, one of them would grow a mouth and tell him what to do.

“And it’s me who’s gonna make sure you make it safely back to your own time. Avoiding Mister Captain Hero Sir is gonna be easily after all, but it’s Lana who you should be more worried about. She’s the one who’s the Oracle of Ages after all.”

‘I though that Lana said she was the Guardian of Time, not the Oracle of Ages?’ Marin said.

‘Oracle, Guardian, hy-lian, hi-lian. Same difference. What I’m trying to say that Mister Captain Hero Sir isn’t gonna care about where you go after the war, but Lana will, which is fair since it will mess up the timelines big time and that’s literally her job, but Hylia really should have thought about that before creating this mess.” Mask said flippantly.

‘And I suppose you’re just an expert on timelines and time travelling, aren’t you a little young for that?” Ravio asked, raising his eyebrows in a way that he hoped showed that Ravio was a ‘Functional Adulttm’ and not showing off the fact that he never had a clue what he was doing at any point in time.

“Yes. Yes I am.” Mask said, not elaborating on anything, much to Ravio’s displeasure. 

‘But-‘ Marin placed an arm on Ravio’s shoulder and shook her head, and with that Ravio took a closer look at the kid, who was staring down at one of his masks, the one that looked remarkably like a deku scrub.

‘Fine. Whatever. We can sort out how know way too much about time magic later. Are you gonna help us or just grass us up to Mister Captain Hero Sir or Scary Sheikah Lady?”

‘There’s not much I can help with, but Midna can help. Probably.” Mask said with a small frown on his face, clearly deep in thought. 

“And how do you know she can help?” Marin asked, looking from Ravio to Mask and back again in confusion. 

“Because she told me about something called the Mirror of Twilight, so that would give her more experience with using a mirror for travelling.”

“Y’know, I suddenly don’t want to know why you know all of this. You can keep your secrets, Mask.” Ravio sighed as he tried to rub his face to get rid of the stress wrinkles that Mask was clearly causing. 

“Cool. I wasn’t going to tell you anyway.”


	2. Chapter 2

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of work involved with changing the mirror from an object that can teleport someone from one dimension to another, to an object that can teleport someone to from one timeline to another.

Not that Ravio understood anything that came out of Midna’s, Mask’s or Fi’s mouth as they sat around discussing how the logistics work, the runes needed to be added, the precautions that needed to be put into place. The only thing that Ravio can offer is his rather large store of magic to help charge the item and getting hold of the moon pearls.

And, of course, making sure that Mister Captain Hero Sir wasn’t on their case.

Out of all the jobs he has, it’s that final one that turns out to be the hardest.

Maybe it was the fact that they are in the middle of a war, maybe it’s Mister Captain Hero Sir’s PTSD (not that this incarnation believed that he had it, of course, but Ravio had worked with his type before, and thus, he also knew that the Hero was only trying to make his symptoms less obvious as to not worry his friends, like the dumbass he was), or maybe it was the simple fact that the Captain is already suspicious that they were up to something, but either way, it takes a lot to convince Mister Captain Hero Sir that they were not up to anything.

It had all come to a breaking point when one night, Marin and Ravio were caught sneaking back into their tents. Progress on the mirror had been great, almost ready to use if the others were right, and

“And where have you guys been?” The Captain tried to look stern, looking down at the pair with his arms crossed, but Ravio could see the exhaustion in his eyes, with mistrust mixed in with the brilliant blue. The war was almost over, according to the soldiers who drunk their nights away in hopes of peaceful dreams. They had gained a lot of ground on the enemies now and were almost ready to take back the castle. However, it would not be the first time during the war that a soldier had turned his blade onto another, and that was the last thing that the allies needed, when the end was so close.

Before Ravio could say anything in defence, Marin burst into tears.

Instantly, the mistrust melted into concern as the man in front of them relaxed and approach them.

“What’s wrong?” his voice was much calmer, more soothing, than it was before. There was a strange duality in this man, Ravio had learned during this war. This hero was a man who gave orders without the blink of an eye, who killed the men who dared to commit treason. This was the man tried to smile at everyone in hopes to lift their spirits, who pretends that his nightmares didn’t exist in hopes to lift moral.

He was a coin, dangerously spinning on its third side, and Ravio couldn’t help but worry about the face Mister Captain Hero Sir would finally land on.

He hoped, that after the war was over, he would be able to find a purpose without the fighting, without the army. He’s seen stronger men destroy themselves after losing their purpose, and well, wars aren’t made to last. He’s watched his own Hero, his Link, fold in on himself after what he learned was his fifth adventure, where there was no danger in the world, but his mind couldn’t seem to grasp it. There was only so many times a man can be forced to fight for his life and country before the damage was irreversible.

“It just-” Marin hiccupped, “The war is coming to an end and that’s a good thing! But all of these people- I only got to meet these people because of the war- and- I’m never going to see them again when it’s all over- and I get sent back to my own time--”

“Hey, come here.” Mister Captain Hero Sir said before opening his arms, allowing Marin to lean forward and hug him. “Of course you feel like this, this is completely normal.”

“I know, I’m just going to miss you all when this is over,” Marin said, only now getting her tears under control.

“And I will miss all of you guys when you go back to your own eras, but it’s better like this. The timeline suffered enough.” Mister Captain Hero Sir said sadly.

“And how much do you get paid to say that shit about the timeline?” Ravio asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Not enough.” He said with a shake of his head. “You guys get back to your tent quickly now.” They both nodded their head and quickly walked towards their tents. One they were in their tent, Ravio turned to Marin.

“What the hell was that? If you were feeling that way, then you could have said-”

“I only did that to get Mister Captain Hero Sir off our back.” Marin said, but then she blushed, looking away from Ravio. “But I am going to miss everyone when we leave.”

“Yeah I know, I will too.” Ravio said with a sigh. “But at least we’ll have each other.”

“And Link.” Marin said.

Link.

The name made his mouth go dry. He was the reason Ravio was making such a huge fuss, him and Marin. They both deserved so much, after what the Goddess had put them through, and if it meant that Ravio had to leave so that they could be happy for the rest of their lives then he would do it. Afterall, he and Link were only married for the tax benefits, even if Ravio’s feelings were there. He was certain that Link wouldn’t miss him if he went back to Lorule, or at least not as much as he had missed Marin.

“We should get some sleep.” Ravio said, before he started to get ready for bed. He was already in his sleeping back when Marin blew out the candle for the night, but he did not sleep, instead just allowing the tears to fall silently down his face.

* * *

The mirror is complete the morning after their confrontation with Mister Captain Hero Sir.

Marin didn’t realise how fast the end was coming.

Well, it wasn’t truly the end, but they were certainly on the final page of this chapter. Regardless of how exciting it was to finally move on, from living a life beyond this war, but her soul hurt knowing that she would never see these people, all the people crowded in the small tent and more, again in her lifetime.

“So this is it, huh.” Ravio muttered as the group stared down at the mirror, sitting innocently on the ground, acting as if it wasn’t the McGuffin of this entire arc of the story.

“You guys don’t have to go just yet though. The war isn’t over,” Mask pointed out, sounding uncharacteristically childish.

“Are you sure about not joining us Mask?” Midna asked, a look in her eyes that yelled to the others that she knew that Mask didn’t want to go back home, that there was a time period that he would rather be in right now, and it was not the one that Lana would send him to.

“Nah, I’ve broken the timeline enough as it is.” Mask waved off, without explaining, as usual. Fi looked like she wanted to say something, but Tetra decided that now was the perfect time to yell about training with the sword spirit, practically dragging her out of the tent, leaving them only a backwards glance

“Marin, can I talk to you for a second?” Marin turned back, giving the boy a smile.

“Go on without me.” She said to Ravio. The other looked like he was about to argue with her, so she just rolled her eyes before placing a finger on his lips to stop him from arguing. It wasn’t until her skin was touching his that she realised what she was doing however, and it took a second for the words to form in her mind, her cheeks blushing lightly at the contact. “I can look after myself, I don’t need to prove that to you of all people. We’ll meet you in the mess hall.” Said mess hall was nothing more than a larger tent that food was served but neither mentioned the technicality. Ravio only nodded wordlessly, a slight blush of his own powdering his checks, and it took a cackling Midna dragging him away.

Now, that, was a can of worms that they would open later.

“I need to give you something before you go.” Mask said quietly. It was strange to see the boy so nervous, after watching him on the battlefield. Marin almost couldn’t recognise the boy who used a sword like he had been born with it in his hand with the boy in front of him.

“We’re not going to go for a while.” Marin said nicely, though, they both knew that this wasn’t the case. The word ‘while’ didn’t have a specific timeframe in mind, but the whispered rumours raced loudly throughout the camps of gossip soldiers. ‘One more battle’, the tired men said. ‘One more battle and then the wars over. One more battle and then we can go home.’

One more battle and then it was time to leave. Then it was time to be send home, never to see her friends again.

Wars were never meant to last.

“Hmm,” Mask said, clearly completely unconvinced of her words. Rightfully so. “I’ve got a song to teach you.” He pulled out his ocarina, a brilliant blue of the like that Marin had never seen on another ocarina, reflecting the candlelight in a hypnotising way, promising secrets and stories of the like that she had never heard before.

Marin didn’t question the young hero as she pulled out her own, the pair going to sit down on the floor as they went about playing the new song.

It was a rather sombre thing, and not something that Marin had ever heard before. It was a march of mourning, a tragedy told in slow and long drawn notes. And yet, despite that, there seemed to be a seed of hope within the music, one that tried to sprout and grow as each note passed. A call to change the world, a desperate plea to go back and rewrite the very history that caused so much strife.

It was nothing like the song that forever echoed in Marin’s head, the one that caused her to lose so much sleep. The Ballad of the Windfish was a song of awakening, to open the listeners eyes to the dream that they were in and to change the world around them.

The Song of Time, as Mask called it, was nothing like the hopeful lullaby that surrounded Marin, and yet, she couldn’t help but feel like it had a similar affect on her. It was a song that called to change.

“It’s able to bring the player and the people around them back into the past or the future.” Mask finally explained after she had finally gotten the notes down. “The song has only works for the Ocarina of Time, so…” Mask hesitated for a second before passing the brilliant blue ocarina, the Ocarina of Time, to her. He almost looked scared to give it away, and his eyes were already full of grief of giving away what must have been a prized possession.

It was no secret that Mask was possessive of the small amount of possessions he owned. At first, Marin thought that he was scared to leave everything behind in a world that wasn’t his own, but after getting to know the boy, it was clear that it was another case.

He simply didn’t have that much to begin with.

“But it’s your ocarina.” Marin said as she looked over the object in her hand. It was a material that she had never seen before, but she wouldn’t have guessed it by only looking. It was cold in her hands, despite the almost hour that they had been playing, despite the fact that Mask never let go with it. It was almost a stone, but it couldn’t be. No stone could be made into an ocarina, not with how much she struggled to make her own ocarina out of wood. No stone could be as blue as the instrument in her hand, but as she inspected it more, it was clear that it had not been painted.

And, at the top of it, were the small yellow triangles that Marin was becoming more and more familiar with, a symbol she had hated long before she arrived in this war-torn Hyrule. She had hated the way that Link had traced the scars on the back of his hand as he told her the history behind them one night. She hated the wars and death that the triforce left in its path.

It was supposed to be a symbol of the Golden Goddesses, a symbol of Royal Family, a symbol of peace.

Strange a symbol such as that caused so much grief.

“If the goddess thinks that I need the Ocarina, she will send me to you to pick it up. I will be sent back to my own time by Lana, she will definitely make sure that I specifically get back to my proper timeline, since it’s not the same one that Ruto and Darunia came from.” Neither of them mentioned the unusual familiarity that the Goron and Zora held for the little hero, from the pinching of his checks to yelling about volcanic dragons and marriage proposals. Mask always says that they’re in another timeline, and the pair always agree with him, but there is a sadness in the air between the air, regret so heavy that it burnt her tongue. 

‘And, if, I’m lucky, I will be able to get to have a break from all this adventuring. That would be nice.’

Mask’s supposed to be twelve years old, Marin remembered Midna telling her one night.

She remembered when Link told her about his first adventure, when they sat on the log on the beach, watching the stars and the way that Link’s face twisted with pain as he whispered to her what had happened to him, his uncle’s death and finding out the truth of his family and the connections to the royal family, how he was wanted by the army and how he’s still being looked for, and how that led to him fleeing his home while his sister, the crown princess of Hyrule, sorted out the problem and got the kingdom back into shape.

She traced his scared hand as told his story, of his pain, of his grief and his anger at the world, at the goddess, at the hero before him that left the world in such a state. She had known that he wasn’t telling her something then, she could see it in the way that he studied her face like he was committing it to memory, but she never asked. She wished that she had, if only so she could have prepared to say goodbye to the love of her life.

Mask reminded her on him. They looked similar sure, but it was more than that. Sure, they had the same dirty blonde hair, they had the same blue eyes, they had the same triforce scar on their left hand, but it was more than that. It was the way that their eyes lost focused when they remembered something that hurt them. It was the way that they fought like they were dancing, with a vicious smile on their face as they promise their enemies a painful end via the point of their sword.

There was no way that he was twelve.

She remembered the kids on the island, all five of them, between the ages of ten years and ten months. They had been strange, all with their quirks, but never in the same way that Mask had his quirks.

There was no way that he was twelve.

“Well, hopefully I won’t need to use it.” She said with a pained smile, one that Mask

“Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. You’ll keep safe, won’t you Miss Marin?” Marin smiled at how Mask addressed her. He was never that polite to the others, so it warmed her heart every time to hear that name come out of his mouth.

“Of course. I’ll have to tell my Link about how helpful the Hero of Time was for me on my trip home.” Mask’s hero title was not something that was thrown around a lot. Most people were weary of using it, having grown up with stories of how the great Hero of Time was the first person to defeat the King of Evil. Some had thought the kid was lying at first, not being able to associate the kid with the legends that had been told to them as bedtime stories, and even when Lana backed up Masks claims, everyone was still a little weary.

One night, Mister Captain Hero Sir had confessed to her that they were told stories that the Hero of Time had been sixteen when he pulled the sword and saved Hyrule. When you’re a child, sixteen sounds so grown up, but now as adults, sixteen was the age where you were no longer a child, not quite yet an adult, and yet, so angry at the world and ready and rearing to change it. As an adult, you feel guilty putting the world onto a sixteen-year-old.

Learning that the child wasn’t sixteen but nine? Guilt and anger at the Goddess doesn’t begin to describe the feeling.

“Hmm.” He said standing up. She followed suit, and the pair walked towards the mess hall in a peaceful silence. Despite this, Marin couldn’t help but take in the kid who walked along side her as a friend, and as an ally in a war that wasn’t their own, and only one thought raced through her mind.

There was no way that Mask was twelve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I haven't given up on this fic. This chapter just killed me asdfghj


End file.
